Rock For Rights 2011 Music Concert & Party

Engendered, the NYC based transnational arts and human rights organization proudly announces their inaugral event in India, ROCK FOR RIGHTS (RFR), 2011, in collaboration with Delhi based organization Queer Delhi.

What role can art play in strengthening & imagining an equal world with equal tomorrows?

New Delhi, India, November 6, 2011: Engendered, the NYC based transnational arts and human rights organization proudly announces their inaugral event in India, ROCK FOR RIGHTS (RFR), 2011, in collaboration with Delhi based organization Queer Delhi. In solidarity with all gender, sexual and minority rights movements in South Asia, RFR is a historic live music concert and party on Nov 27th at the Lalit Hotel in New Delhi. The concert brings together some of South Asia’s most explosive musical talents crossing genres and nations – from Sufi to electronic, folk to rock, India to Pakistan, artists and bands who will come together with the power of music to create a platform to speak of human rights, choice, dignity and social justice.

The concert could not have come at a better time than to coincide with Delhi’s Pride festivities including Pride March that is scheduled for November and provides the perfect platform to show solidarity for the queer community that is still fighting for its rights. Says concert artist Rekha Bhardwaj, ‘the power of music, specially sufi traditions allow great freedom and fluidity. I am excited to add my voice to Rock for Rights, and the cause of equal human rights for everyone, and a life of dignity, choice and freedom irrespective of their personal choices or gender identity. ”
” There is a greater need then ever before to support the cause of equal human rights for everyone. I’m thrilled to be even a small part of the change with my performance at Rock for Rights.” says queer artist Ma Faiza.

• Zeb & Haniya: an alternative, art folk & blues pop group from Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The duo’s songs are mostly in Urdu, but some lyrics are also in Pashto, Persian and Turkish. Their music gained mainstream popularity with the Pakistani edition of Coke Studio, and recently with the music show Dewarists on Indian TV.

• Papon & The East India Co: Indie Rock act, Papon (Angaraag Mahanta) an Assamese singer-composer, who won the hearts of many with his powerfully crooned hit Jiyein Kyun from Rohan Sippy’s Dum Maro Dum.

• Ma Faiza: is India’s number one electronica DJ, playing to some of the largest crowds in India and across the world.

• Alisha Battht: a folk rock artist based in Bombay who is heavily influenced by the 90s, Punk and tough women.

‘The performing arts in South Asia remain spaces of great transformation, music specially remains one of the most effective and powerful ways to change societies like ours that are still fraught with silences around issues of gender, sexual and human rights. We are thrilled to have so many voices joining us to amplify our mission of using the popular to blow up the marginal’ says Myna Mukherjee, director for Engendered. “The impact of violence and exclusion to those who are marginal challenge us to broaden and strengthen our language of human rights. We must work to make them not just inclusive but effective. This concert allows different voices against marginalizations to come together in solidarity and do just that. Rock for Rights both celebrates and voices resistance to and beyond South Asia and the Diaspora, reminding us of everyone’s part in creating an equal world with equal tomorrows for everyone.’

About Engendered:

Engendered is the trans-national arts and human rights organization focused on exploring the complex realities of gender and sexuality in the South Asian Diaspora. Based in New York, Engendered presents an annual four-part festival that brings together the best in contemporary South Asian performance, music, visual arts, and cinema. Both a political and aesthetic festival, Engendered uses the medium of arts and culture to create change and promote social justice by initiating public dialogue around women’s issues, gender inequity, sexual orientation, and minority and health rights. For more information about the organization, please visitwww.engendered.org.

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The Cathartist is the Editor at GaysiFamily. She remembers nearly all her dreams to the last detail, would rather skip a movie than watch it after missing the first five minutes, has a rare form of Tourettes leading to inappropriate conversations and is a hopeless jerk magnet. If she ever writes a book, it will be called "La tyrannie d'anciens amoureux".

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